Ministry works to tighten Beltline neighborhood

John Humphreys (right) and Ken Burnette, both volunteers with Jacob’s Ladder CDC, build a new entryway at a house they are renovating as part of their new community center ministry in the Beltline neighborhood.

The Commercial Appeal

“As we sought to organize opportunities to engage the neighbors . . . churches played a vital role by offering a civic association through which people could relate to one another,” says Bill Marler of Jacob’s Ladder.

The Commercial Appeal

December 11 2013 - The exterior of a community center Jacob’s Ladder CDC, is renovating as part of their new community center ministry in the Beltline neighborhood. (William DeShazer/The Commercial Appeal)

The Commercial Appeal

Jacob’s Ladder volunteer John Humphreys grabs boards for framing work inside a Beltline house that will become a community center for the neighborhood. When completed, the center will a place for kids to go after school for safe recreation and help with schoolwork.

The Commercial Appeal

Rebuilding lives, one street at a time. That's the mission of Bill Marler.

As a minister in the United Methodist Church, he holds master's degrees of divinity from Memphis Theological Seminary and philosophy from the University of Memphis.

But Marler opted out of the ministry in 2000 to re-examine his own life.

Following what he terms "The Code of Involvement and Community Engagement," that journey found him and his wife, Lana, addressing the need for neighborhood revitalization.

With that goal, they founded the nonprofit organization Jacob's Ladder, a biblical image of God's presence.

"The staff of United Housing and members of St. John's Episcopal Church joined our experimental efforts to rebuild a neighborhood and get those living there to buy into their own revitalization," he said. "But beyond that goal, we wanted to lend support to help people stop recycling their poverty from one generation to the next."

A "pilot house" was located in the Highland Heights neighborhood in 2002. While the renovation of the structure was successful, Marler said, the experience led the group to decide that revitalizing a neighborhood would best be approached by reclaiming clusters of homes, not just one house.

The group turned its attention to the Beltline, an area east of the fairgrounds, a neighborhood Marler had lived within a mile of most of his life. It is bordered by by Hollywood Street on the west, Southern Avenue on the south, Haynes on the east and Milton on the north side.

City records indicate that when the neighborhood was developed in the early 1900s, it was planned for African-American residents.

Despite its history, Marler said, the Beltline lacked a neighborhood identity and little community infrastructure, such as parks, that instill a strong neighborhood cohesiveness.

He said it was a transient neighborhood, with most movement in and out of it prompted by evictions. Eighty-seven percent of the 860 houses in the area were rental properties, most with absentee landlords.

Jacob's Ladder began addressing that problem in a threefold fashion; removing blighted properties through renovation or demolition, offering opportunities for the neighbors to come together through cookouts and festivals, and through their faith.

"When we started this mission 10 years ago, the only identifiable afterschool benefit was that one of the neighbors had a trampoline," Marler said. "Now we have broken ground and are building an actual community center, at Midland and Boston, which will offer afterschool tutoring and safe recreation.

"It is part of our larger vision to structurally create a ‘corridor of learning' along Boston Street. It will also serve as a safe passage way between the Beltline and Hanley Elementary.

"Until now, that stretch had 14 houses, either vacant or blighted, and several serving as gang houses. And the actual railway tunnel, or ‘subway' as it is commonly known in the neighborhood, offered its own terror for pedestrians and motorists alike. And all of this is what children had to walk through to get to school."

Originally, there were 17 blighted houses on the block. Three were torn down to make room for the community center. Two others are being renovated. The CDC hopes to address the other 12 in the next three years.

Marler said it was through the neighborhood's churches — Mt. Pleasant Baptist and Williams Temple Church of God in Christ — that the Jacob's Ladder team began to build relationships and trust with residents.

"As we sought to organize opportunities to engage the neighbors, both with us and with each other, the churches played a vital role by offering a civic association through which people could relate to one another," he said.

In addition to the two neighborhood churches, representatives from Buntyn Presbyterian, Christian Brothers University, Emmanuel United Methodist, Epiphany Lutheran, Idlewild Presbyterian, Lord of Life Lutheran, Millington United Methodist, and New Tribe Church have taken roles in the Beltline Association.

Rev. Robert Williams, pastor of Williams Temple Church of God in Christ, said, "Jacob's Ladder has shown a true concern for the people in the Beltline. Through their efforts, they have engendered a sense of community, and the support they have brought to us from others has been a great source of hope and inspiration."

An annual spring festival took shape, followed by a Thanksgiving service in the fall, and other organizations began to offer their support, including Memphis City Beautiful and the neighboring Coca-Cola Bottling Co.

Dave Gramm, plant manager of Coca-Cola on Hollywood Street, said, "We wanted to partner with the community, especially our own neighbors. And the residents of the Beltline are people we see every day when we walk out our doors.

"Working with Jacob's Ladder gave us the opportunity to build a little history, to be part of the story of their revitalization. We are set on improving the opportunities for those neighbors, not just giving handouts, but by truly opening doors."

What began as simple engagement, with Coca-Cola providing beverages for neighborhood events, has grown into community involvement.

Marler approached Gramm with a request for an informal business arrangement to offer job opportunities.

Gramm elaborated: "It's a win-win situation, not a compromise. Something as simple as trimming hedges and mowing the lawn around the Coca-Cola campus is opening up job possibilities for our neighbors. We hope to expand that type of thinking into possible job training and job development in other areas of our operations."

Rubbie Malone, president of the Beltline Association, agrees that the program with Coca-Cola has offered myriad positive benefits.

Malone says, "Working to improve the Beltline has increased people's self-esteem and their pride of place. Jacob's Ladder has not only brought that opportunity to our doorsteps, but the housing improvements and the reality of affordable homeownership has given people a more positive attitude about their future.

"And while those efforts address our adult population, it is the efforts to reach out to our children and our teenagers that is the true beginning of breaking the poverty cycle. Jacob's Ladder is helping provide a place for our children to go after school where they can get help with schoolwork and use their time constructively, not get into trouble.

"And the investment of time in their lives is something that the children take back home with them. It is increasing their understanding of being a good person and a good neighbor."